Interview with Designers: David Weyer

Our first interview is with David Weyer.

David is a past graduate of UWM's design program and has been working as an interactive designer since his graduation one year ago. Following graduation David worked in a competitive internship program at Razorfish:Chicago. (http://www.razorfish.com/). Following his internship in Chicago, David took a position at GMR marketing (http://www.gmrmarketing.com/en/) as their first interaction design specialist and more recently he has accepted a position with VSA Partners in Chicago working in branding and interaction.

Please leave any discussion/comments and feedback prior to March 13 here on the blog. David will be given access to either the blog or your comments and given the opportunity for further feedback if necessary.



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1. What disciplines do you find yourself working with most often? How much collaboration is there between disciplines?

In interactive design, you are collaborating with everyone—project managers, account managers (depending on the agency); other designers, and developers. I work most closely with other designers and developers. Sometimes a group of us will get together and brainstorm a solution that a client is looking for and create a mock-up (these are fun because these brainstorming sessions can get really intense and people start arguing :P). Keep an open mind, and learn from other disciplines—this will make your job much easier.


2. What do you enjoy most about designing for the web? What do you enjoy the least?

Interactive design presents many challenges, but I love the thrill of learning a new trick and figuring out how far I can take that thing I learned and incorporating it (and others) into a cohesive design. Constant changes in digital platforms, especially today, makes the process of interactive design very dynamic and exciting.

In all disciplines, you have to be flexible with constant changes and updates to your work. If you think you have a design that is very effective, your client may want something completely different, despite how rational you think your solution might be. As a designer, you will run into this quite frequently, more often getting feedback from a client that has no knowledge of design. Others are very flexible and afford you the creative freedom to experiment.


3. Interaction is a relatively new field, how did you become a designer? An interactive designer? What was your path? Why did you decide to work as an interactive designer?

Going into school as a design major, I never really had any ambitions of pursuing interactive/web design. I was pretty intimidated by what I thought would be too complex of a field. I later realized that the demand for interactive designers is growing very rapidly.

In my own experience, I wanted to be a designer that helped design something that functions—that can be used. I found myself starting to learn about the basics of web design, HTML, CSS, JQuery, Flash, and AS3; understanding the structure and its functions. I am still learning, and with the pace of things, will never stop learning throughout my career.

The exciting thing about interactive/web design is that the platforms are always changing. In the past 6 months, I have been charged with learning how to design for the iPhone, iPad, Android, as well as keeping up with the current trends in web design.
As I gain more experience in interactive, I find the job hunt to be less of a disappointment. I enjoy the change, challenge, and the result. And honestly, it’s super cool to have a website you helped develop go live!!!


5. Have you worked as anything other than an interactive designer in the past? Currently?

I have done some small freelance projects that involved print, but in the past year, I have worked primarily as an interactive designer



7. How important is audience to interactive design? What sort of information/research methods do you use to learn about audience?

While you want to focus on creating an elegant interface in your design, it is crucial that you focus on the user. There are many websites out there that are beautifully designed, but are confusing, or too complex. Create an interface that is straightforward and easy to use, while still making accessible all of the information that needs to be contained within that site.
Draw out a site map/wireframe and decide what navigation is and is not necessary. Think of your website as a product. Think of your interface (and this is a big rule of thumb) as something your parents or grandparents would be able to easily navigate. As far as design goes, keep your site/app consistent throughout the pages.

8. What are the most important things you have learned in the industry that they did not teach you in school?

This is a great question. What you learn in school prepares you by helping you understand the basic fundamentals of the design process. There really isn’t much school can do to fully prepare you for the industry itself, but it has certainly helped me refine my process and discipline myself to become a better collaborator.

In a lot of cases, the client/agency is not as flexible as school. Each client has a very rigid set of rules and guides (style guides and branding guidelines) that must be followed. You will learn that it is a very technical and fast-paced industry. In school, you are given weeks to months to finish a product. In some cases when you are working at an agency, you may be asked to crank out a project in ½ a day. This doesn’t happen all of the time, but it will from time to time. You will eventually learn to work at this pace. It takes a little bit of guidance at first, but you’ll get a hang of it ☺.